Will and I manned the BHM/Self-Reliance magazines’ booth at the MREA Fair in St. Paul. The attendance was modest since the show was new, but we did meet a lot of wonderful people, including some friends and fans from the magazine. Some even wore a BHM T-shirt which entitled them to a free book!

Will helping get our booth set up at the MREA Fair in St. Paul.
A few fans stopped by wearing Backwoods Home T-shirts. We got a nice visit and they got free books!

At night Will and I watched the progress of Hurricane Irma from our hotel TV, hoping and praying our Florida friends would stay safe and not suffer terrible losses. We’ve been making financial donations, as we are able, to help those both in Texas and Florida as well as the islands south, which were severely impacted. (And we hope you all will too.)

We arrived home around ten last night and were really happy to crawl into our own bed. Hondo was really put out that Will had left him home and wouldn’t even look at him for awhile! But they made up before bed and he’s out riding in the pickup with Will, going to get a load of hay.

Meanwhile, I’ve started to pick dry beans. I like to pick a few at a time so they get nice and dry before storage. Mold is the enemy of dry seeds and we take great precautions to make very sure every seed is dry.

This is one of our first dry beans, Magpie. It makes a very nice, slim, tender green bean as well as being a refined and pretty dry bean.

Our garden escaped a frost while we were in St. Paul. I called David in the morning and he told me that a co-worker in Orr, to the north, had ice but our garden was fine. Whew! Our tomatoes and peppers are so slow this year, as are those of all of our gardening friends around here. But we hope to have ripe tomatoes to take to our first tomato tasting festival in Orr this Saturday. We wanted to take 50 varieties but maybe we’ll have 30 only to take — Jackie

8 COMMENTS

  1. Sarah & Melinda,

    We were so happy you could come visit us at the BHM booth! Don’t forget to come visit us on our homestead when you can; you’re only a few hours away.

  2. Draza,

    Don’t forget Backwoods Home’s “sister” magazine, published by Dave and Ilene’s adult children, Annie and Sammy! I have been writing for them for several years now, first as an e-magazine, and for the last two years, a beautiful print magazine. AND Dave said he would also be printing a yearly anthology of BHM so folks who do not get Kindle can still read their favorite magazine!

  3. Jackie,
    Our family loves to follow your blog, and read your columns in BWH. We look forward to reading your articles in Self-Reliance. We were fortunate to get in many of the Bill Bean tomatoes from our plants this year, but like everyone, the offerings were slim from our heat loving plants. We are having some trouble with our grapevines. I wonder if you would have some insight? We’d love to have you come to Fort Wayne, IN, too! There are a lot of us here that would love to meet you!

  4. I love the greenbean seeds that I ordered from you. Every one of the seeds germinated and the plants were beautiful, they produced a lot of greenbeans. Thank you for all your advise and encouragement over the years.

  5. Hi Jackie, sure wish you’d have an energy expo in Fresno CA. Learned so much from you in Backwoods Home Magazine and all your books. Sadly, we don’t have Kindle, so won’t be able to read you anymore. All our best to you and your family. Thanks again for everything, Draza and Regina Knezevich

  6. Hey Jackie, it seems tomatoes are late everywhere – even here in Northern New Mexico! We FINALLY got our first red one last week – September 5 and this is in garden beds with a half hot frame on top of the bed!

  7. Love all the materials you put out about “good living”!!! Keep me updated on all your comings and goings. I live in Alaska so do not get out of the state much but put many of your writings into practice.

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